02:21 AM EST June 03, 2003
The Associated Press
NEW YORKThe combination of increased generic drug use and a light flu season slowed pharmaceutical spending growth in the first quarter although it still jumped over 11 percent, a new study said.
Double-digit spending growth is expected for the year, although the increase will be below the 2002 level as companies and health insurers continue to push generic treatments, pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts said Tuesday.
In the first three months of 2003, drug spending growth slowed to 11.3 percent from 16.9 percent in the comparable period in 2001, according to Express Scripts, which provides services to over 50 million people.
For the year, Express Scripts expects drug spending to jump 15 percent, down from 18.5 percent in 2002. Last year, prescription drug spending rose to $585.50 per member per year, up from $494.20 in 2001.
Drug spending has been a primary driver of spiraling health care costs, and employers and insurers have worked to push individuals to take generic drugs, primarily by raising co-payments on brand name medicines.
The efforts seem to be working. The primary reason for the spending growth slowdown is generic drug use, said Fred Teitelbaum, vice president for research and planning at Express Scripts.
"In the first quarter there were some one-time events that affected spending like the light flu season," said Teitelbaum. "But ongoing it will be the use of generics."
For the first quarter of 2003, 47 percent of prescriptions processed were for generic drugs, up from 43 percent a year earlier.
Teitelbaum said in 2002 widely used drugs such as diabetes treatment Glucophage and blood pressure treatments Zestril and Prinival lost market exclusivity which helped increase generic drug use.
Teitelbaum added the news that menopausal women taking hormone therapy pills containing a combination of estrogen and progestin increase their risk of breast cancer, stroke and heart attack dramatically curbed sales of such therapies.
There were few major new drugs introduced last year, which also moderated prescription spending. Clarinex, the successor to the wildly popular allergy medicine Claritin, was introduced. However, some insurers won't pay for Clarinex because they say isn't any more effective than Claritin, which is now sold over the counter.
"Health plans are no longer willing to put drugs automatically on the formulary when they come out," said Jack Holton, a principal at Towers Perrin, a benefits consulting firm.
|